RCMP expected to break up checkpoint
Northern B.C. First Nation blocking access to TransCanada’s Coastal GasLink pipeline
Members of a northern B.C. First Nation say police intervention is imminent at checkpoints they’ve set up blocking access to a liquefied natural gas pipeline project.
Jennifer Wickham, a member of the Gidimt’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, said RCMP officers have gathered in Smithers and Houston, the closest towns to the checkpoints, which are on the Morice River and West Morice River forest service roads.
“It’s a pretty spiritual time for the folks that are up there right now, and they’re sort of bracing themselves for what could come,” Wickham said from Smithers on Sunday.
The project to which the checkpoints are blocking access is TransCanada’s $4.7-billion Coastal GasLink pipeline, a 670-kilometre line that is meant to deliver liquefied natural gas from Dawson Creek to a planned LNG Canada facility near Kitimat.
TransCanada has benefit agreements with all 20 elected First Nation bands along the route, however, members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, which is made up of five clans that have numerous houses, have long protested construction of pipelines through the nation’s claimed traditional territory.
“We’ve never signed a treaty, we’ve never ceded or surrendered our land in any way to Canada,” Wickham said. “Canada is choosing the pipeline over reconciliation with the Wet’suwet’en.”
Wickham said a pipeline would jeopardize the health of the Morice River and block members of the First Nation from their territory.
“It would affect every aspect of our lives,” said Wickham. “This is a remote part of the country and people still sustain themselves traditionally here. People still have that relationship to the land, we still have our stories of our ancestors. If a pipeline goes through, it will devastate those territories and we won’t be able to access them.”
To prevent pipeline construction, the Unist’ot’en — a house group of the Gilseyhu clan — set up a camp, including several buildings, in the path of the pipeline about a decade ago, and a checkpoint on the West Morice River Forest Service Road. In December, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled that the occupants of the camp had to allow TransCanada access to the Morice River Bridge and the construction site, which is about a kilometre away from the camp.
Three days later, a second camp and checkpoint were set up at kilometre 44 of the Morice River Forest Service Road, on Gidimt’en land.
“The chiefs made the decision to control access to Gidimt’en territory because all of the house chiefs have been opposed to pipelines all along, but it’s been the Unist’ot’en that’s been holding it down,” said Wickham.
The court ruling was updated Friday to include the Gidimt’en checkpoint and anyone “occupying, obstructing, blocking, physically impeding or delaying access” in the area. The defendants have until January 31 to file a response to the injunction.
TransCanada spokesperson Terry Cunha said in an email that Coastal GasLink is simply looking to cross the Morice River Bridge to do work.
“In fact, we see no reason why the camp cannot continue with its activities. We simply need to use the public bridge to access our pipeline right-of-way. The bridge provides the only physical connection in the area to the right-of-way,” Cunha said.